Living archive part 2

In the last issue of Malawi Amoto, we met Nora Ring (left) who served with the South African General Mission and Africa Evangelical Fellowship in Malawi from 1953 to 1990. In that first article Nora looked back on what life had been life for her and her husband, Daryl, as they worked on the Nsanje District in Southern Malawi. Now she looks back on the tru she undertook with members of her family and considers what changes, good and bad, have occurred in the intervening years.

When Nora Ring returned to Chididi 24 years after she had left, it was not just for a tip down Memory Lane but it was with a real desire to see how the work she and Daryl had been involved with had progressed.

What she found is that modern life had started to make an impression in the area, not least on church services: “We were going to services three, sometimes four times a day because they have electricity now!” she said.

Nora was present at the baptism of more than 100 new beleivers

“When we were there, there was no electricity so we could not have evening services but now they can. Another change was that the Pastors are all wearing clerical collars, which they did not in my day!”

There was a lot of catching up to do with people Nora, and Daryl, had lived and worked with, and also the children of many who to meet her.

“At Lulwe we just visited with the Pastor and a few of the people we knew. And then at Chididi there was church conference. So that was very, very busy,” she said.

“It was difficult for me to see some of the people that I remembered. The women I know really well, but I did see each one. I had to walk to some of the villages to see them. It was just a joy to renew fellowship with them, I nearly cried and some of them did too!

“But the fellowship was just really wonderful not just with the people I knew but children of the people I knew, that was a joy to see quite a number of them who seem to be definitely following the Lord; that was just so encouraging.”

The indefatiguable Nora trekking to another village

She was further encouraged when she attended the baptism of over 100 people in the local river on one of the days she was there. And also by the church services, even though they were not what she expected or remembered: “The services are more Pentecostal with more interaction between whoever is leading and the congregation; that was new to me!”

One thing which did please her greatly was to find that the work she had been involved with, and the churches she knew when here in Malawi were still going strong. Nora said she was “impressed” with the Pastors whom she met and also with the “Christian people” she met and that the foundations she and others had laid down are being built on a strong way.

So at 89 is this the last time we will see the redoubtable Nora Ring in Malawi? Probably!

“Well, I’m not really expecting to come to Malawi again. At my age I am not expecting to make another trip, but I am rejoicing at having been able to make this one!”